Boho Fashion Is Back For AW24, But Not As You've Seen It Before
Some dresses seem borderline mystical, inviting magic into your life with every wear. In 2008, one of these crossed my wardrobe. It was a petal-peach chiffon halterneck with a tiered skirt tumbling to an asymmetrical hem – the kind of thing you could take a twirl in and, mid-spin, imagine yourself transformed into a boho-dream-girl hybrid of Sienna Miller, Stevie Nicks and Talitha Getty. I wore it to picnics on Primrose Hill, to dinner in Florence and (just once) to run into the surf at Cefalù, Italy, holding the hem above the water and laughing, because I felt freer and more glamorous than an intern living in a shabby Zone 4 flat had any business feeling.
I still wonder what happened to that dress – I like to think it winged away on a breeze. Should it suddenly reappear, it would be a hot listing on Depop. Because after all the Barbiecore, oversized tailoring, Y2K throwbacks and quiet luxury of seasons past, bohemian style – better known as boho – is back.
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On the AW24 catwalks, the look, evocative of free spirits and Seventies hedonism, showed up in Ulla Johnson’s macramé dresses and Isabel Marant’s fringed boots and swingy capes. Ditto at Etro, where it took on a rock-chick accent, and at Rabanne, where Julien Dossena showed knotted, fringed maxi skirts and bias-cut floral dresses that appeared pieced together from your cool aunt’s scarf collection (you know – the aunt who played tambourine on-stage with Jefferson Airplane that one time).
But it achieved its fullest expression at Chloé, where Chemena Kamali made her debut as creative director with a masterclass in frou: ruffled lace blouses, silk chiffon maxi dresses and fringed leather jackets – all of it in a palette of ochre, sepia and sugar-almond blush, grounded by thigh-high leather boots.
Kamali, who first worked at Chloé 20 years ago before returning to take the top job at the French fashion house last October, cited ‘the late 1970s era of the house’ as the foundation of the collection: ‘A time that was about a natural femininity. Sensual, effortlessly powerful and free.’
And that’s the thing: more than any specific components, boho style is about a feeling – the senses of poetry and ease that have been absent from so much of the harder, faster, sharper, sleeker fashion on catwalks of late.
‘For me, it’s the epitome of a woman or girl who travels, who’s not afraid of wearing beautiful vintage clothes – it’s about precious pieces, worn in a very un-precious way,’ says Mairead Lewin, the vintage dealer and stylist who has sourced dresses for Florence Welch and Kate Moss, among other boho icons. ‘You know you’re going to have a good time in a boho dress. You can pass out in the back of a limo in it quite comfortably.’
For those who remember Miller’s boho era with fondness, the return of the trend has been a long time coming. (Side note: when I interviewed Miller a few years ago and asked about her retrospective views on her boho era, she said, ‘I like how experimental I was.’ And, ‘I’d probably pick up a lot of those pieces today.’)
The key difference between Noughties boho and its 2024 revamp is that the trend has grown up. A little bit. A smidge. Just enough to ensure that it appeals to women who wore coin belts over ra-ra skirts in the early 2000s and Gen Z-ers alike.
‘The new interpretation of the aesthetic is more refined now than 20 years ago,’ says Libby Page, market director at Net-a-Porter, ‘with an inclination towards intricate details and tailoring that combines our love of the extraordinary everyday with modern-day romanticism’. She credits Kamali’s ‘faultless’ debut with boosting searches for ‘boho style’ on the site 400% in the first month the Chloé collection dropped.
The look, with its ruffles and silks, also happens to be deeply, unabashedly feminine – but never prissy. It’s ‘clothing that allows and encourages women to feel both powerful and beautiful,’ says designer Ulla Johnson, ‘a dialogue around the meeting place between feminine and feminist. Femininity today means many different things to different people, but certainly it has begun to be freed from the restrictive and reductive notions of the past.’
If you aren’t sure how to wear it, take inspiration from Johnson’s lookbooks, or the gang Kamali brought to the Met Gala in May: Zoe Saldana, Greta Gerwig, Emma Mackey and (of course) Miller, all styled in looks from the AW24 collection. Also worth revisiting for boho inspo are Zoë Kravitz; pre-The Row Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen (see M-K in a vintage Zandra Rhodes kaftan at the Charlie’s Angels premiere in 2003); and Stevie Nicks. The Fleetwood Mac frontwoman’s mid-Seventies dolman sleeves, lavish ruffles and general witchy-ethereal vibe remain the ne plus ultra in boho style.
‘I think boho represents a certain kind of happiness in clothes,’ says Zandra Rhodes, the British fashion designer whose printed silk chiffon dresses and kaftans have been worn by women ranging from Natalie Wood, Bianca Jagger and Cher (definitely boho) to Princess Diana (less so). Working on Iconic, her new memoir, reminded Rhodes of some of her favourite fashion moments from across the decades. ‘People enjoy boho because it’s a very strong form of design. It shows that you’re not trying to blend in.’
Given that the modern take is based in Seventies style, vintage shops make fertile hunting grounds. While you’re shopping, should you come across anything that you suspect may be my dress, grab it, please. I’ve been lucky to enjoy other memorable dresses since then, but I wouldn’t miss a chance to reach back in time for a handful of that boho stardust again. It never really goes out of style, you know.
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